My third 3D printer appears to have died

[Wendy]

I have a three-year extended warranty from micro center. But I am unable to service this or build a new one. I have been getting outstanding use out of this one, I just hope I don’t have to wait several months to get this fixed or replaced. It died virtually the exact same way the previous ones did karma the temperature on the head sensor is jumping around tripping a thermal runaway alarm and shutting the printer down mid print.

@DigitalDoyle was kind enough to help me with this one for which I am ever so grateful. My financial situation has changed a bit, so if money is an issue I am more than willing to chip in to get this fixed.

My second 3D printer just died

Ender 3 pro. It seems to be a thermocouple issue, it keeps alarming out due to a thermal runaway. The first one that died is sitting in a unused storage space. I have ordered a new print head with the thermocouple attached. I am willing to pay for anyone who can help me get this fixed. For those who don’t know me I am a disabled older lady paralyzed on the left side due to a stroke, during my working life I was a machine maintenance tech. If this repair works, I would be willing to buy the parts…

[DigitalDoyle]

Hi Wendy! Sorry to hear about the new machine going down… and in the exact same way as the other two. I found several issues as I’ve been repairing those other printers you gave me (THANK YOU!!! I’m learning so much!). I discovered it wasn’t the thermocouple on either of them. You had the thermocouples on both of them connected to the part fan cooling socket on the mainboard and that’s why they weren’t reporting correctly in the control panel.

But there were other issues with the bed and several other things. Roughly how many successful prints did you get out of the new one before you started having issues?

Also, I would recommend callling Microcenter and asking them how quickly they can do the warranty work. My guess is that it would be pretty quick, since they’re local. I’d be happy to come and pick up your printer and take it to Microcenter and then bring it back to you. Just let me know and we’ll get you back up and printing as quick as possible.

Cheers!
Whiskey

[DigitalDoyle]

Hey… just had a thought… One of the other issues was that you’d evidently inadvertently snipped the cooling fan wire for the hot end on one of the printers… I think the other one had a similar issue… That would cause the hot end to go into thermal runnaway and shut down the prints… Did you do that to the new one? Did you try replacing the thermocouple? Just looking for patterns…

The fact that they all broke in the exact same way stands out to me. That is statistically improbable. I’ve been printing nearly non stop with the Ender 3 Pro that I bought right around the same time you bought the first two and have had very few issues with it at all. Really happy with the quality of the prints.

One of the printers you gave me… the one with the earliest build date, but they were only a month apart… needed a new mainboard and I’m replacing that today. I’m also putting .6mm hardened steel nozzles on all of mine and doing R&D to speed up my prints as much as possible without sacrificing quality too much.

I got one of the printers you gave me running really well, for a while… perfect in fact, but then started getting blobbing issues which led to layer shifts and parts being ripped off the bed. That turned out to be a problem with the nozzle… either clogged or worn out. I replaced it with a new brass nozzle and it was back to working well again.

Hope this helps. Please tell me, in detail, when you first noticed the problems beginning and what they were, and also most importantly… what you did to mitigate and/or repair.

Thanks!
Whiskey

[Wendy]

I have had huge numbers of prints on from this machine I use it more than one time a day you on the usual average, I apologize for not posting more completed projects on on this forum (most of them electronics). Funny thing is is I updated my prompter print software and it tried to raise the temperature for ABS at one at 230 degrees C since then I have I’m making sure it is set for 200C instead and have had no problem with it yet. I try to make sure it is off when I am not using it to keep wear and tear on the fans to a minimum. We established last time we worked on it that is not a thermocouple but a a thermistor. Which is a different animal entirely.

Overall I would give this a printer from micro center a much higher rating than the one I bought from Amazon, I suspect to sell Amazon seller was dumping problem units.

At this point I am just going to use the unit and not tear it down.

[Wendy]

So I called micro centers 800 number, they told me I had to return the original printer after it it had been disassembled. I still have the box but that requirement is ridiculous it would serve them right if we were to disassemble it and return it in a baggie. The printer has finished dying today. It served me well and I did like it the good news is micro center has them on sale for $100. They will give me a gift card for the amount I purchased the last printer which was at $200, and we can buy a new printer from that. They said we would have to get a new extended warranty policy for the new printer. I don’t know what I’m going to do at this point but I sure would like to have my printer, thank you.